by Джеффри Лорд
While Edyrn gathered a mass of parchment and maps and stuffed them into a carrying bag, Nob sidled close to Blade and caught.his ear.
«She bids you come to her this night, sire, when you have finished your business. She will wait for you in the cavern of music. She bids you come alone.»
Blade cocked an eye at his man. «And where is this cavern of music? And how shall I find it?»
Nob’s good eye closed slightly. «My Ina, the Gray girl you know of, sire, will take you there. I have arranged evg.».
Blade smiled and, dismissing him, said, «Have a care that you do not arrange trouble for yourself. And do not waste your time-I have put you in charge of the beggars and mendicants and you know what to do. I expect results-if I do not get them, and I find it is the fault of your lust for women, it will go hard with you.»
«Aye,» said Nob hastily as Edyrn approached with his heavy bag. «Aye, master, I understand. Do,not misdoubt old Nob-always business before pleasure with me, sire.»
Blade smiled. «See to it, then. Your beggars and thieves are all the intelligence I have. I depend on them.»
Edyrn, when Nob had gone, bowed and said, «If you are ready, Sire Blade? I will show you what you wished to see.»
Blade nodded. «I am ready. You say it is a long walk? Good enough, Edyrn. We will talk as we go.»
With his knowledge of events furnished by Nob, Blade found no great difficulty in coping with Edyrn. They left the caverns and walked along a path of crushed lava. They skirted a darkling taro and,Blade glanced back at the looming bulk of the volcano they were leaving behind. There was a lurid flare — for a moment, a movement of flame deep within the bowels of the cone, and Blade was sure he saw the silhouette of a tall woman against the fire, like a puppet seen for a moment before an open furnace door. He stopped and gazed, blinking, wondering if the blow had affected his eyesight as well as his memory. There was nothing there now, nothing but the sullen rumble and belch of volcano.
Edyrn touched his arm. «We must hurry, sire. There is much to do and little time-«
Blade pointed. «I thought I saw-«
«You did, sire. It was Izmia, the Pearl. My grandmother. She goes often to the brink to look and think. For her Weird is an the fire and soon she must meet it.»
Blade did not question. He merely looked at Edyrn and nodded. «You and Juna are brother and sister?»
Edyrn nodded in his turn. «Aye, sire. By another hero who came from nowhere, as you have come, and who vanished into nowhere as you will vanish. Shall we go on, sire?»
They came out onto the plain and walked through fields of fragrant loti. Ahead of them loomed an angular, open work tower supported by three legs. The fields were deserted.
Edyrn said, «All supplies of penthe have been destroyed as you ordered, sire. The Gray People have been put to work on fortifications and fire trenching, such as are able to work after withdrawal.»
Blade cast him a sidelong glance. «How did that go, Edyrn?»
«Badly at first. There was much murdering and rioting, and a deal of insanity. Cybar was destroyed by flames.»
«A pity,» murmured Blade. «It was a beautiful city.»
Edyrn stared at him in surprise. «But you yourself ordered it burnt, sire.»
Nob had not told him that. Damn the rascal. Then Blade withdrew the thought. Nob was only Nob, after all, and it was not his fault that Blade had amnesia. And Nob had saved his life after he had taken the blow on the head in the beach skirmish. But Blade began to wonder what other things he had done, or ordered done, that he could not remember and of which Nob did not know. Edyrn would have to help him there.
The tower was some three-hundred feet tall. Several Gray People manned a winch and basket and Blade and Edyrn were lifted to the top. On the way up Blade said, «How as to horses, lad? We are going to need them badly.»
«There are no horses on Patmos, sire. There never have been. We have never felt need of them.»
Blade remembered what Nob had told him of the charging Samostan cavalry in the Beggar’s Square in Thyme-and scowled.
«Well, Patmos has need of them now.»
They were nearing the top of the tower. «Hectoris has horses,» said Edyrn. «Thousands of them on transports. They lie off our coasts at this very moment.»
Blade fingered his newly shorn beard and smiled. «Yes I had that thought myself.»
A single great room perched atop the tower. All four sides were transparent. There were desks and chairs. Edyrn went to a large desk and began to unload his bag of maps and papers. Blade walked about the room. From this vantage he could see the whole of the island and was surprised. He had not thought Patmos so small. To his right, and level with his line of sight, was the smoky maw of the volcano. This coign of vantage allowed Blade to see what he had not seen before-.a path leading to the edge of the crater and ending there in a fiat stone platform. Blade felt a visceral twinge and knew, without any conscious knowledge, the purpose of the platform.
«Her Weird is in the fire.»
For a moment he thought Edym had spoken the words again, but when he turned he saw the boy still busy with his maps and documents. Blade went to join him. And got straight to the point.
«How many real soldiers do I have?»
Edyrn straightened and squared his shoulders. «There is only the Pearl’s Guard, sire. Which I command. The toy soldiers of Kador and Smyr are useless and anyway most of them have fled the island. The Gray People, even without penthe, are cattle and can only be used as such. And your man, Nob, has gathered some ragamuffins and knaves, but-«
Blade gestured impatiently. «No matter that! How many men?»
Edyrn consulted a paper. «A thousand and three, sire. Counting myself.»
Blade turned away so that the boy could not see his face. It was not much of an army with which to face Hectoris, the barbarian, with his lancers and his bowmen and his cavalry, his catapults and his battering rams. It was, in fact, no army at all and Blade knew that Patmos was lost, and so was he, unless he could somehow bring Hea. toris to single combat and kill him. This had been in his mind all along and now.he examined it openly and did not see how it could be accomplished. Hectoris was anything but a fool. Blade let it go for the moment. When the time came he would have to think of a way.
One-great advantage he had-he knew of the Samostan plans. Unless Ptol had lied, and Blade did not think he had. There was a chance, a bare chance, that he could force a confrontation with Hectoris and taunt him into battle, hurl the gauntlet, force the Samostan chief into a position from which he could not retreat with honor. All that would have to wait. First things first.
Edyrn came to stand beside him. Blade, realizing that by now the boy must have guessed the truth-and yet for some strange quirk of his own not wishing to admit itkept mostly silent as Edyrn pointed out this and that and kept talking.
«Your orders, sire, have been obeyed to the letter. The Gray People, and all others who can be pressed, toil at the fortifications and shore barricades and cavalry traps. Most of them are fakes, manned by dummies as you ordered. Such of the Gray People who can fight have been armed with wooden swords and lances, for we have not enough arms, and we keep them marching and counter-marching to give the impression of numbers. We keep a diligent watch for spies and do not slay them, but treat them well, question them, and try to win them over to our side. In this we have been many times successful, for Hectoris is not loved.
«I have stationed small units of the Guard about the island, sire, but keep the main force in reserve near the volcano.»
Edym pointed past Blade’s shoulder to a largish camp laid out in rectangular fashion. Much, Blade thought, as an old Roman camp would have been. Had he ordered that, too? Again he damned his amnesia and the computer and the whole of Dimension X. He felt a longing for the head pains that would presage his return to Home D, and pushed the thought away. His duty was here. Duty? The thought was not supportable by logic, made no sense at all, and yet there it was.
This was a wasted mission and he knew it. There was nothing to be gained for England in this particular Dimension X and every moment he lingered he risked death.
Worse, in this case, because if he were taken alive and given to Ptol’s priests they would find means of keeping him alive a long time. A burning helmet would be the least of it. Yet, deep in his heart, he was content that the computer did not reach for him. He was stubborn, and probably quite mad, but he wanted to see this thing through. Blade laughed aloud. He was, in short, a fooll
Edym broke off his recountal to stare at the big man. «You laugh, sire? Perhaps you will share the joke with me, for I find little enough to be cheerful about.»
Blade smote him on the shoulder and laughed again. «I wish I could, lad, but I cannot and it is no matter.
Now you were saying of how clever I had been. Tell me that again, lad, for I like praise as much as any man. And it will refresh my memory.»
Edym cast him an odd glance but did — not comment. He picked up a paper. «I will read it back to you, sire, just as you dictated it to me.» He began to read from the paper.
It was a strange feeling, listening to words that he could not remember having spoken. One thing Blade recognized immediately-the cunning and the knowledge of making primitive war upon which he had always before been able to rely in Dimension X. The question now was, as he heard his own strategy revealed, would it work? Would Hectoris be baited into the trap that Blade had set?
«. . you spoke of a scorched earth policy,» Edym was saying. «You promised that all of Patmos would be destroyed, that Hectoris would capture nothing but ashes and desolation. Such was the message you sent him.»
Blade nodded. «You have a record of his reply? If any?»
Edym half smiled. «I have, sire. He sent back word that if Patmos was destroyed he would come anyway, come in revenge, for he had always had a mind to settle and live out his days on Patmos. He also threatened tortures of the worst kind and has set a special force of priests to thinking up new ways of prolonging life and agony.»
Blade battered a great fist into his palm and his laugh was harsh. «We had best see to it, then, that if worse comes to worst we all die.»
Edyrn said calmly that he had seen to that, at least among the Guard. If the battle was lost they had compacted to slay each other, and had drawn lots to arrange the order of it.
«You, sire, must do as you list. As will Izhmia, the Pearl. But there is still Juna to consider. She is prisoner of Hectoris, betrayed by Kador and Smyr, and Hectoris is sure to bring her along as a captive and seek to bargain with her. It is all important to Patmos, sire, that Juna live. But Izmia, my grandmother, will have spoken to you of that?»
Blade nodded vaguely. Izmia had done no such thing. Perhaps this night, when he met her in the Cavern of Music, she would explain. That too would have to wait.
Edyrn was unrolling maps and weighting them with metal blocks. «So far, sire, your plan has worked. Our defenses are so built as to channel the attack to North Harbor, to make Hectoris think it is our weakest point when in fact it is our strongest. It is at North Harbor that his main attack will no doubt fall, though it is to be expected that he will mount feints at other spots along our coast.»
Blade gazed out over the island. It was getting dark and thousands of fires were blazing. Off to his right was a great glow in the sky that could only be the remains of Cybar.
A lick of flame, like a dragon’s tongue, leaped from the volcano nearby and then withdrew. Aes Triplex, thought Blade, remembering some of the classics he had read at Oxford. Triple Brass bound, the hearts of men who lived in the shadow of a volcano. The Guard was brave enough-and the Guard would die.
His own head must have been stuffed with brass, Blade admitted now, to think that even if his plan worked and he brought Hectoris to battle at a place of his own choosing, that he could defeat the barbarian hordes. He simply did not have the men. Hectoris would overwhelm him by sheer force of numbers.
Edyrn pointed to a spot on the map and then to its counterpart on the darkling horizon. «North Harbor, sire. The Samostan scout ships approach it even now. By dawn Hectoris will be ready to invade in force. Everything has been done that can be done, sire, and all your orders carried out. And now?»
Blade gave him new orders, brief and to the point, and left to keep his appointment with Izmia.
CHAPTER 10
Nob, as he prepared Blade’s bath and laid out fresh clothing, was full of chatter.
«The Samostans will land at dawn at North Harbor, master. I have had a score of reports from my beggars and they all agree.»
Blade, scrubbing away, nodded. «That is stale news, man. Have you nothing later to report?»
Nob grinned his toothless grin. «Aye. Hectoris has put a hundred foot and a hundred horse ashore near Cybar Port, but that is only a feint, a scouting party. They are pushing this way.»
«That is better,» conceded Blade. «We will let them push in a little way and then we shall see. That will be your task, Nob. I have given orders as to it when you leave me you will go straight to Edyrn and he will give you command of a squad of the Guard. Listen well, for this is exactly what I want you to do. .»
Ina, the Gray girl, led Blade down and down into the bowels of the volcano. There seemed no end to the passage. At first it was hot and Blade sweated, then it grew cool and even cold and he found himself chilling. Ile girl spoke not a word all the while.
They came into a vast open space and Blade heard the music again. Sensuous, sweet and strange harmony, and now he found himself in the very center of the music. It was not loud; he barely heard it, and yet it filled his brain. The girl left him without a word and Blade began to make his way through a glistening maze of what looked like. giant cobwebs stretching from floor to ceiling of the cav-em. He touched one of the shining strands and it gave off a faint and plangent twang. It felt like rubber or plastic. At the same time he was aware of air moving through the cavern in a constant stream. Air that brushed through the billions of cobweblike strands and produced the music.
That was the secret. The whole island, Patmos itself, was a great volcano. It was riven by volcanic tubes, perhaps hundreds of them, and through these the music drifted to all parts of the island.
«BLADE!»
Iznua’s voice. He could not see her, yet the sound came from in front of him, deeper in the cavern. Blade pushed on through the harplike strands, each one humming and vibrating in the air. There was a path, easily discerned when you were close enough, and he pushed on like Theseus in the Labyrinth.
«BLADE!»
Close now. Blade halted in the midst of siren song and looked about. Music engulfed him.
«BLADE!»
He saw a light and made for it. He left the giant harps and entered a smaller cavern. In the center stood a great catafalque all draped in black. On it, her naked body gleaming and changing color even as he approached, lay Izmia. Her silver hair was draped over her breasts and on her flat belly something gleamed. He recognized it as the metal bowl in which she had caught his semen.
Izmia spoke again, softly this time. A single word. «Blade.»
He halted and contemplated her, arms akimbo, frowning a bit. «I am here, Pearl of Patmos. Come as you bid me. What now?»
His eyes roved over her massive and perfect body and he felt no stir of excitement. There was to be no sex, no mingling of flesh, this time and he felt an odd mingling of diappointment and relief. And felt something else-something that chilled the flesh along his spine. There was no warmth in her golden eyes. this night-only a blankness and a far-seeing look.
She did not speak. She watched him and Blade felt himself as drowning in the lambent whorls of those amber depths. He shrugged impatiently and scowled.
«Did you summon me to exchange stares, Izmia. It is not a time for games. I will tell you the truth of things as they are on Patmos. Your island is lost unless I can bring Hectoris to private battle and-and thereby hinges ever
ything-defeat him!»
Izmia held up a hand. «I did not send to hear of that. It is no longer my concern.»
Blade gaped. «It is not? Whose, then?»
The golden eyes narrowed. «Yours, glade. In your hands it lies. And in the hands and body of Juna, if it so be that you can save her and bring her to this place and to her heritage.»
Blade was beginning to feel awe and he did not like it. He feigned anger to disguise his uneasiness. «You may have time for such riddles, Izmia. I have not. Dawn comes in a few hours and I must be at North Harbor to face Hectoris.» He bowed curtly. «So by your leave I-« lzmia raised herself on an elbow. She took the bowl from her belly and held it aloft. «You will remain, Blade. You will listen and you will obey. Without question.»
And Blade somehow knew that it would be so.
Izmia pointed. «You will find a chalice in the cabinet yonder. And a vessel of wine. Fetch them to me.»
Blade did so. When he returned Izmia was standing on the catafalque and holding the metal bowl aloft in both hands. Blade put the chalice and the wine at her feet and gazed up at her magnificent naked body and now desire moved in him. His loins tightened.
Izmia smiled down at him and shook her head. «No, Blade. That is over for us. It is the time of my Weird and I must face it. I leave this life and you will bring another to take my place.»
Juna? And how was he to wrest Juna from Hectoris?
Izmia was tipping a powder into the metal bowl. She took a small instrument and scraped and stirred and crushed, using the instrument as a chemist uses a pestle. Her flesh quivered, the huge firm breasts trembling as she moved. An aromatic smell drifted from the bowl to Blade’s nostrils.
Izmia held out a hand. «The wine.»
She poured wine into the chalice and stirred it again. There was a frothing, bubbling sound and faint smoke rose from the bowl. Izmia held out the bowl to Blade. «Drink.»
He did so. Without protest. This was Dimension X and things would be as they would be-and in this case Blade knew that he did right. Izmia knew what she was about.